You’ve seen the grainy footage. Black robes, a white beard, and those piercing eyes that seemed to look right through the television screen. If you grew up in the late 70s or 80s, that face was everywhere. But even now, decades after his death, people are still asking: who is the Ayatollah Khomeini? It isn't just a history question. It’s a "why is the world like this today" question.
He was a revolutionary. A scholar. A hardliner. Depending on who you ask in Tehran or Washington, he was either a savior or a tyrant who dragged a nation back centuries. Honestly, he was a bit of both and a whole lot more. He didn't just change Iran; he basically shattered the old idea that religion was dying out in modern politics.
From the Classroom to the Front Lines
Ruhollah Khomeini wasn't born a firebrand. He was born in Khomein—hence the name—around 1902. He spent most of his life in the dusty libraries of Qom, studying Islamic law and philosophy. For years, he was just a quiet academic. A teacher. But he had this simmering resentment toward the Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The Shah wanted a Western Iran. Mini-skirts in Tehran, high-speed rails, and close ties with the White House. Khomeini saw this as "Westoxification." He thought Iran was losing its soul to a "puppet" of the Americans. By the early 1960s, he stopped just teaching and started shouting. He called out the Shah for being a tool of foreign powers.
It got him arrested.
Then it got him exiled. He spent 15 years in Turkey, Iraq, and finally France. Most dictators would have assumed he was finished. Out of sight, out of mind, right? Wrong. Khomeini did something brilliant. He recorded his fiery sermons on cassette tapes. These tapes were smuggled back into Iran and played in mosques and living rooms across the country. He became a ghost in the machine. While the Shah was throwing lavish parties in the desert, the "Grand Ayatollah" was whispering in the ears of the working class from a small house in the Parisian suburbs.
The 1979 Explosion
When people ask who is the Ayatollah Khomeini, they are usually thinking of 1979. That was the year the world tilted. The Shah’s government collapsed under the weight of massive protests, and Khomeini flew back to Tehran on a chartered Air France jet.
📖 Related: Trump Approval Rating State Map: Why the Red-Blue Divide is Moving
The images are wild. Millions of people lined the streets. It was pure chaos. People were climbing over each other just to touch the car he was in. He didn't just step into a power vacuum; he created a whole new kind of government called Velayat-e Faqih, or "Guardianship of the Jurist." Basically, he argued that until the hidden Imam returns, the most learned Islamic scholars should have the final say over everything.
Everything.
This is why Iran has a President but also a Supreme Leader. Khomeini was the first one. He held the ultimate veto. If he didn't like a law, it didn't happen. If he wanted a war, it happened. He turned Iran into a theocracy overnight, and the repercussions are still being felt in every oil price hike and regional proxy war we see today.
The Hostage Crisis and the Great Satan
We can't talk about Khomeini without talking about the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. In November 1979, Iranian students hopped the fence and took 52 Americans hostage. They held them for 444 days. This was the moment the U.S.-Iran relationship died. Khomeini didn't necessarily order the hit, but he certainly used it.
He called the United States the "Great Satan."
It’s a phrase that stuck. For Khomeini, the U.S. wasn't just a political rival; it was a moral threat to the Islamic way of life. This wasn't just about borders or oil. It was a clash of civilizations. He used the hostage crisis to consolidate power at home, purging anyone who was too "moderate" or too friendly with the West. It was a masterclass in using an external enemy to crush internal dissent.
👉 See also: Ukraine War Map May 2025: Why the Frontlines Aren't Moving Like You Think
A Legacy of Blood and Faith
Then came the Iran-Iraq War. Eight years. Millions dead. Saddam Hussein invaded, thinking Iran was weak after the revolution. He was wrong. Khomeini used the war to further galvanize the country. He sent young boys to the front lines with plastic "keys to heaven" around their necks.
It was brutal.
But even through the economic collapse and the mounting body count, his followers never wavered. Why? Because he offered them something the Shah never could: a sense of identity that wasn't borrowed from Europe or America. He gave them a pride rooted in their own faith, even if that pride came with a massive side of repression.
He was also deeply controversial for his fatwas. Most famously, he ordered the death of author Salman Rushdie for writing The Satanic Verses. To the West, this was an insane attack on free speech. To Khomeini’s supporters, it was a necessary defense of the sacred. This divide is exactly why he remains such a polarizing figure. There is no middle ground with Khomeini. You either see him as a holy man who stood up to imperialism, or a radical who hijacked a nation.
What Most People Get Wrong
People often think Khomeini was just a "backwards" religious guy. That’s a mistake. He was incredibly savvy. He knew how to use modern media—like those cassette tapes—to bypass state censorship. He understood the power of the "oppressed" (mostazafin) as a political class.
He wasn't trying to go back to the 7th century; he was trying to build a modern state based on 7th-century principles. There’s a big difference. He embraced technology and statecraft, but only if they served the Islamic Republic.
✨ Don't miss: Percentage of Women That Voted for Trump: What Really Happened
Understanding the Current Middle East
To understand why Iran acts the way it does today—why they support groups like Hezbollah or why they are so adamant about their nuclear program—you have to look at Khomeini's original vision. He wanted to "export the revolution." He didn't want the Islamic Republic to stay inside Iran’s borders.
He saw himself as a leader for all Muslims, not just Persians. This created a massive rift with Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led nations. It’s a rift that defines the Middle East in 2026 just as much as it did in 1986.
The current Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was Khomeini's hand-picked successor. The system hasn't really changed. The faces in the portraits have, but the ideology is identical. When you see protests in the streets of Tehran today—like the "Woman, Life, Freedom" movement—those protesters are directly challenging the walls Khomeini built.
How to Dig Deeper into Iranian History
If you want to actually understand the nuance here, don't just watch documentaries. The history is written in the literature and the legal codes of the era.
- Read "All the Shah's Men" by Stephen Kinzer. It explains the 1953 coup that set the stage for Khomeini’s rise. You can't understand the man without understanding the trauma of that event.
- Look at the 1979 Constitution. It’s a weird, fascinating mix of French republicanism and Shia Islamic law. Seeing how they tried to balance voting with divine rule is eye-opening.
- Research the "Green Movement" of 2009. It was the first major crack in the foundation Khomeini laid, and it explains why the current regime is so terrified of social media.
Understanding who is the Ayatollah Khomeini requires looking past the caricature. He was a man of intense contradictions: a philosopher who condoned violence, a hermit who led millions, and a leader who claimed to hate the West while using its own political structures to cement his power.
To get a real grasp on his influence, track the evolution of Iran's "Morality Police" and compare it to the pre-1979 era. The shift isn't just religious; it's a total transformation of the social contract. Investigating the primary sources of his speeches, which are widely available in translation, reveals a man who was deeply consistent in his distrust of foreign intervention. Start by comparing his 1963 speeches to his final testament in 1989. You’ll see the arc of a man who never once doubted his mission, for better or worse.